Sqlsat154 maintain your dbs with help from ola hallengren

© 2012 House of Brick Technologies, LLC

Maintain Your DBs

(with Help from Ola Hallengren)

SQL Saturday #154 – St. Louis– 09/15/2012

Andy Galbraith – Technical Consultant @DBA_ANDY


About House of Brick Technologies

14 year old Omaha-based company

Leader: Tier-1 VMware, Database Performance

Rock-solid reputation for optimizing the entire system

stack to maximize Tier-1 performance

House of Brick key service value components

Hybrid/private cloud architectures for complex Tier-1 workloads

Legacy to virtualization, and private/hybrid cloud system replatforming

SQL Server and Oracle virtualization specialties

Short term assessments and proof-of-concept projects

Long-term project analysis, PM, implementation, & validation


About Me

SQL Server Consultant

10+ years of experience in

SQL Server, clustering,

performance tuning

Andy Galbraith

@DBA_Andy


What is Database Maintenance?


Why Do Database Maintenance?


http://www.flickr.com/photos/damienmaloney/6967718013/sizes/z/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/z287marc/3189567558/sizes/m/in/photostream/


Doesn’t SQL Server Have Maint Plans?


#EPIC_FAIL


How Do The Pros Do It?

http://sqlblog.com/blogs/aaron_bertrand/archive/2009/04/18/another-index-maintenance-script-update.aspx

http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2012/02/webcast-recording-dba-darwin-awards-index-edition/

http://www.informit.com/guides/content.aspx?g=sqlserver&seqNum=32

http://www.bradmcgehee.com/2009/11/ola-hallengren-updates-free-database-maintenance-scripts-to-support-sqlbackup-6-3/

http://sqlblog.com/blogs/greg_low/archive/2010/05/17/sql-server-maintenance-utilities-update-for-sql-server-2008-r2.aspx

http://sqlblog.com/blogs/jonathan_kehayias/archive/2009/08/26/ola-hallengren-releases-new-version-of-backup-integrity-check-and-index-optimization-scripts.aspx

http://sqlblog.com/blogs/kevin_kline/archive/2008/03/26/more-sql-server-automation-scripts.aspx

http://www.sqlskills.com/BLOGS/KIMBERLY/post/Database-Maintenance-Best-Practices-Part-II-e28093-the-most-important-setting-FILLFACTOR.aspx

http://www.sqlskills.com/BLOGS/PAUL/post/Great-script-for-automating-database-maintenance.aspx

http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2009/11/17/sql-server-2005-2008-backup-integrity-check-and-index-optimization-by-ola-hallengren/

http://sqlblog.com/blogs/tibor_karaszi/archive/2008/01/11/more-maint-procedures.aspx


The Ola Hallengren Maintenance Solution

DatabaseBackup

IndexOptimize

DatabaseIntegrityCheck

Cleanup Jobs

FREE!


Hallengren Basics

Download the script

Full Script – MaintenanceSolution.sql – creates all procedures

and jobs

Individual Scripts for each procedure

Run the Script

Preferable to run into master or “tools” db if you have one

Schedule the Jobs

It’s just that easy…. (Did I mention *FREE*?)


Hallengren Gotcha’s

Must be sysadmin to run MaintenanceSolution.sql

Only runs on SQL2005 and up

Set the @BackupDirectory near the top of the script before you run the script!


Hallengren Logging

One of the greatest strengths of solution

By default, writes log files with explicit descriptions to default log path

Option to “LogToTable”

Parameter in stored procedures

Writes to CommandLog table in base database


DatabaseBackup - Basics

dbo.DatabaseBackup Can configure directory path(s)**, etc.

Also:

Backup Software – Quest LiteSpeed, Red Gate SQLBackup, Red Gate HyperBAC, Idera SQLSafe

Number of Files

Compression

Encryption

BufferCount & MaxTransferSize

** Just Released Feature – can stripe backup across multiple directories!


DatabaseBackup - Syntax

EXEC dbo.DatabaseBackup

@Databases=‘USER_DATABASES –BigArchiveDB’,

@Directory=‘F:\BACKUP’,

@BackupType=‘FULL’,

@Verify=‘Y’,

@Compress=‘Y’,

@CleanupTime=‘36’,

@LogToTable=‘Y’


DatabaseBackup - Jobs

Four jobs by default – can always modify or create additional jobs!

DatabaseBackup - SYSTEM_DATABASES – FULL

DatabaseBackup - USER_DATABASES – FULL

DatabaseBackup - USER_DATABASES – DIFF

DatabaseBackup - USER_DATABASES – LOG


DatabaseBackup – Job Syntax

Agent jobs use sqlcmd by default:

sqlcmd -E -S $(ESCAPE_SQUOTE(SRVR)) -d master -Q "EXECUTE [dbo].[DatabaseBackup] @Databases = 'USER_DATABASES', @Directory = N'D:\SQLDEVELOPER\Backup', @BackupType

= 'FULL', @Verify = 'Y', @CleanupTime = 24, @CheckSum = 'Y', @LogToTable = 'Y'" -b


DatabaseIntegrityCheck - Basics

CHECKDB on selected databases

Same options as DBCC CHECKDB


DatabaseIntegrityCheck - Syntax

EXEC dbo.DatabaseIntegrityCheck

@Databases = ‘SYSTEM_DATABASES’,

@Physical_Only = ‘N’,

@LogToTable = ‘Y’


DatabaseIntegrityCheck - Jobs

Two jobs by default

DatabaseIntegrityCheck- USER_DATABASES

DatabaseIntegrityCheck- SYSTEM_DATABASES


DatabaseIntegrityCheck - DEMO


IndexOptimize - Basics

Check fragmentation levels of each index (sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats)

Reacts based on that level (low, medium, high)

Thresholds are user-configurable

Actions at each level are user-configurable


IndexOptimize - Syntax

EXEC dbo.IndexOptimize

@Databases = ‘USER_DATABASES’,

@Update_Statistics = ‘ALL’,

@MAXDOP = 2,

@FillFactor = 80,

@LogToTable = ‘Y’


IndexOptimize - Jobs

One job by default

IndexOptimize - USER_DATABASES


IndexOptimize - DEMO


Cleanup Jobs - Basics

sp_delete_backuphistory

sp_purge_jobhistory

Output File Cleanup

CommandLog Cleanup


Scheduling

None of it matters if you don’t go back and

SCHEDULE the jobs!

I like these (but everywhere is different):

DatabaseIntegrityCheck – nightly

DatabaseBackup – nightly fulls/diffs with periodic

logs

IndexOptimize – weekly

Cleanup Jobs – monthly

Create a schedules script (script it from SSMS) and then you can run that script as a base after each MaintenanceSolution.sql install


What if I run SQL Express?

Recommended Method:

Scheduled Tasks

Use sqlcmd similar to Agent Jobs

Configurable with same schedules, etc.

Still performs logging etc (stored proc parameters)


What if I run SQL Express?

Not-Recommended Method (but it can work):

Scheduling Server

Install MaintenanceSolution.sql on Express instance

Create Hallengren jobs on a “real” SQL instance

with –S(erver) parameter modified to point to the

Express instance, like this:

sqlcmd -E -S ExpressServer$SQLEXPRESS -d master -Q

"EXECUTE dbo.DatabaseBackup @Databases =

'USER_DATABASES', @Directory = ‘F:\Backup',

@BackupType = 'FULL'" -b


Hallengren Tips & Tricks

Can run DatabaseIntegrityCheck and exclude individual large tables or filegroups

EXECUTE dbo.DatabaseIntegrityCheck @Databases = 'AdventureWorks', @CheckCommands = 'CHECKALLOC,CHECKTABLE,CHECKCATALOG', @Objects = 'ALL_OBJECTS,-AdventureWorks.Person.Address‘

http://sqlblog.com/blogs/greg_low/archive/2012/07/02/run-database-checks-but-omit-large-tables-or-filegroups-new-option-in-ola-hallengren-s-scripts.aspx



Can run DatabaseIntegrityCheck and exclude individual large tables or filegroups

EXECUTE dbo.DatabaseIntegrityCheck @Databases = 'AdventureWorks', @CheckCommands = 'CHECKALLOC,CHECKTABLE,CHECKCATALOG', @Objects = 'ALL_OBJECTS,-AdventureWorks.Person.Address‘

http://sqlblog.com/blogs/greg_low/archive/2012/07/02/run-database-checks-but-omit-large-tables-or-filegroups-new-option-in-ola-hallengren-s-scripts.aspx



Use @UpdateStatistics and @OnlyModifiedStatistics to manage statistics on columns and/or indexes not being rebuilt

ALTER INDEX REBUILD (via IndexOptimize) automatically updates

stats on rebuilt indexes only (Remember REORG does not update

stats at all!)

To update other statistics, you *must* use the @UpdateStatistics

parameter on IndexOptimize

Uses UPDATE STATISTICS to force update

Can specify columns, indexes, or both

To only update statistics “that need it” (i.e., that have new data)

you can use the @OnlyModifiedStatistics parameter

Checks rowmodctr in sys.indexes to see if there are new rows since

the last statistics update



“BACKUP LOG cannot be performed because there is no current database backup”

Now what?

DatabaseBackup will verify that an appropriate “parent” backup exists, and if it does not, will take a full backup rather than a

log/differential if the @ChangeDatabaseType parameter is set to ‘Y’

Be Careful (You may not want a FULL in the middle of the day!)


Contact Ola

[email protected]

Ola is very responsive (but remember he does this for free on his own time!)

http://ola.hallengren.com

Frequently updated

Not on Twitter (yet)

mailto:[email protected]

http://ola.hallengren.com/


References

http://ola.hallengren.com/

http://www.simple-talk.com/sql/database-administration/automate-and-improve-your-database-maintenance-using-ola-hallengrens-free-script/






























References

Corrupt Databases:

http://www.sqlskills.com/pastconferences.asp

Configuring SSMS for Presenting:

http://www.sqlskills.com/BLOGS/PAUL/post/Con

figuring-SSMS-for-presenting.aspx



http://www.sqlskills.com/BLOGS/PAUL/post/Configuring-SSMS-for-presenting.aspx













Questions?


Maintain Your DBs

(with Help from Ola Hallengren)

SQL Saturday #154 – St. Louis – 09/15/2012

Andy Galbraith – Technical Consultant @DBA_ANDY

Technology

Sqlsat154 maintain your dbs with help from ola hallengren